So colour the coast with your smile;
It's the most genuine thing I've ever seen.
----

ASEAN NIGHT 2007- EQUINOX.

They say pictures say a thousand words; so this is gonna be a pretty
long blogpost.

Last night was neat.

Black and gold and dark kohl, fairy wand makeup brushes and pixie dust;
sneakers on sale, walking around Tangs in full regalia and attracting stares.

Maxine and I make a shopping date, and make ourselves special ASEAN
alibis- which we never use. We're Indonesian-Irish, the two of us; and
we hail from far far faaar away.









Also, we can speak neither Indonesian nor Irish.

...A familiar face waiting outside the Marriott- old school (!); grey
tie, pin-striped shirt, same rakish grin.

"Hey, you're early--" ;

and upstairs, a throng of ruffles and lace and silk and black (but
mostly black),
and an impish face and a poodlesque purple ribbon,

strange music;
and like mothers and daddies at their children's first recital; Maxy
and Sherman and I position ourselves at the frontline, cameras at
attention, and wait for our little girl to get onstage. <3
(which she does, eventually- and eggstremely well, I might add!)


















And then soon, the real dancing begins;
and Maxy Lynna Ting and I weave our way into the gyrating crowd, with Sherman in tow; and we dance, and I use and reuse my limited dance move repertoire, until the blinding flashes of pulsating white light get unbearably surreal and I feel almost like I'm on some kind of strange, scary high.

Later on, I get thirsty- so the scene shifts to
mushroom pizza at cafes, synthetic stars in steel-framed webs,
and escaping from the world by just moving a few steps down from groundlevel,

while near us; some old street singer/uncle/person croons his own version of "Leaving On A Jetplane"--
[ "...I'm leeeeaving on an MRT;
somethingsomethingaboutchappati..."]

and I burst out laughing right where I am.


Subsequently, we make our way back,
and Sherman and I resolve to ask someone we've never met before to dance;

so we decide that I'll ask a little Indian guy standing in the corner,
and I do,
and it's his first time dancing so I can keep up pretty okay;
and he spells out his name but I forget it anyway-
but I do remember the grin on his face.
And that makes me happy.

And as we part ways, I tell him to "be brave; and don't be afraid to ask people to dance, 'cause it's highly improbable that they'll say no, if you ask nicely."

Before the dance ends, we all head off to Gelatissimo-- which, by the way, sells the best gelato ever.
No, no kidding- it was THE bomb.
Yeah, my girls and the boy-- we're pretty illegal. <3





City skies when seen through trees are pretty, and Orchard Road could be a boulevard of broken(?) dreams;
and so I fling up my arms and spin around and around

and people around are staring,
but he's laughing (with me, not at);

and in that moment

I

feel

infinite.